A Garden inside the Kitchen: Coir Makes it Possible

TechnoparkToday.com>> How much fun would cooking be if a handful of coriander leaves or a dash of mint can be plucked straight out of a pot beside the stove and tossed fresh into the pan.  Thanks to innovative coir-based grow bags, for dwellers of high-rise apartments,the kitchen garden will no longer be a patch of greenery outside the house, but literally a garden inside the kitchen.

At the Coir Kerala 2015 trade expo in Alappuzha, a handful of small manufacturers have showcased plant growing kits consisting of light, fibre pots, nutrients-containing potting mixture and seeds or seedlings. Sofine Decors, a company based at the industrial estate in Cherthala, Kerala, which brought movable, fibre-based vertical gardens to Coir Kerala last time, has this time introduced garden pots that can be installed in the kitchen.

Users can grow small to medium herbs including coriander, mint, green chillies and leafy vegetables in pots made of a mixture of fibre and latex, that can retain moisture for up to five days at a time.

“There need be no fear of leakage of water from these and they are 100% natural, eco-friendly products,” said Atish Mathew, the chairman of Sofine.
Another big advantage of these pots is that they can be custom moulded into small or large containers according to the nature of the plants and the space available in homes.
The company’s MD, K J Scaria said the vertical garden, consisting of a series of round pots arranged on a vertical sheet of woven coir, had generated considerable interest, especially in the domestic market, when it was presented last time at the expo.

He said they had received large orders from hotels for using these gardens as screens around swimming pools and in other open spaces. This time they have also developed planters that can be hung on walls and off window sills.

Asiann Coir Products, a company based in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, has developed a solution for urban gardeners struggling to get soil for plants. Their organic growth medium consists of a mixture that uses coir pith and is enriched with minerals and nutrients. The UV-treated grow bags come in various sizes and can be placed in any sunlit part of the home. Asiann says these can be used to grow anything from small aromatic herbs and vegetables to lemon, curry leaves, guava and pomegranates on rooftops. The coir pots and bags are among a number of fibre-based products designed for agriculture and horticulture use on display at Coir Kerala 2015.